Heartfelt Musical Background Stamping

This month the ladies at Heart 2 Heart wanted to see some random or background stamping.  My original vision had been to layer on some more color and flourishes reminiscent of distressed B&T paper, but I decided less is more.  I started by swirling some Champagne ink with a sponge, working from just off the paper inward.  Then I stamped the flowers from the Hello Lovely cardmaking set in New England Ivy and swirled on some Sorbet and Fern.  While I was at it I rubbed some Sorbet in the upper left corner.  The trick to not making marks when you set the sponge down in the middle of the paper is to ink the rounded edge, pinch the wedge on the pointed side and start the swirling motion before the sponge makes contact with the paper while using a light touch.  It is better to layer to build color rather than starting dark.  Next I stamped the musical notes from the retired Universal Backgrounds set in Desert Sand.  Sometimes I would not completely ink the stamp; other times I would stamp lightly on scratch paper before stamping on the card.  I used the same process with the small butterflies from the Your Own Kind of Wonderful set.  The larger butterfly from the same set was stamped in Fern.

I embellished the card with some Fern thick twine and a retired Base and Bling charm.  Once I had the knot positioned the way I wanted it, I used a glue dot to hold it in position.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  Sorbet, Desert Sand , and Colonial White cardstock
Ink:  Champagne, New England Ivy, Fern, Sorbet, and Cocoa
Stamps:  Hello Lovely Cardmaking, Your Own Kind of Wonderful (retired), Universal Backgrounds (retired)
Embellishments:  Fern thick twine, Base and Bling charm (retired)